Singapore Airlines to fly A380, offer premium economy class in Melbourne flights from June

Here is a great news for Melbourne travellers. The Singapore Airlines will be flying its Airbus A380 back to Melbourne in June, with more premium economy seats. It will start as a limited engagement for three days a week as SQ217/218, from 24 June to 3 September with rest of the four days to be serviced by Boeing 777-300ER.

The Melbourne-Singapore flights will also have luxury first class suites. From Melbourne, the SQ218 will fly on Saturday, Sunday or Monday with the ex-Singapore SQ217 superjumbo taking off on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, reports Australian Business Traveller.

While the A380 is expected to boost capacity during the mid-year holiday season, it will also showcase the airline's premium economy class outside of Sydney. Thus Singapore Airlines will be the only airline offering premium economy on the Melbourne-Singapore route, after Qantas shunned the plan.

Besides other comforts, the best part of the premium economy package will be champagne and meals from Singapore Airlines' excellent 'Book the Cook' service. It also allows selecting choicest in-flight meals before flying, with a range of dishes in superior quality.

Australia –Europe connectivity

It is clear that Singapore Airlines has grand plans to have a greater share of the Australian market in 2016 by way of its joint venture with Lufthansa and Swiss Air.

They are planning to offer flexible flight times and better connections to key European routes connecting Australia. The Star Alliance members will be adjusting their schedules between hubs of Singapore, Frankfurt and Zurich. The airlines will also enhance their appeal to corporate travellers.

“We are very excited about what we can do together" said TK Tan, Singapore Airlines Regional Vice-President for South West Pacific. He said arriving early in Frankfurt by 10 minutes will provide a lot more European connections and noted that a bigger spread will improve connectivity for the passengers. Lufthansa had slashed Australian flights in 1995 though it flies between Singapore and Frankfurt.

“We have the three best hubs in Europe for Singapore Airlines – Frankfurt, Munich and Zurich” added Lufthansa Chairman and CEO Carsten Spohr.

“So we can feed them to and from smaller European destinations, and Singapore Airlines will feed us from Australasia,” he added.

Singapore Airlines operates twice-daily flights to Frankfurt besides daily services to Zurich and Munich. Its Düsseldorf service will begin in June with a new Airbus A350.